Matchday Programme

[JPTSwindon]

Agreed.

Many, many other clubs can manage it.  Even my local Swindon Supermarine FC, Level 8 can.  If they don't want to resource it properly get some journalist interns in as a project, or allow the Supporters Trust to manage the content.  

It can't be hard to gather together interesting facts, gossip, behind the scenes etc.

[AshleyClifford]

I personally stoped buying programmes along time ago.... up until that point I alway bought one,going out of my way to try to get hold of a one even if I did not go to the game.

I believe a number of things happened: I decided it was expensive, we had got to a point where it was information saturation i.e it not new news and with tv, news papers,internet, rovers player. You basically already knew what was going to be in it.

before internet you would get exclusive content that would have not been mentioned elsewhere. This is what it needs. But this would involve "holding back" some news.

Going back the programmes where very similar with weekly features. It was a template which then had articles placed in the correct spots ,basically updating last weeks.

they had some good features. If I recall rightly, managers pre game notes/welcome the away team. Couple of pages on the opposition , player diary (I think Kevin Gallagher used to do this) ,getting to know...(different player each week,what's your favourite food, boots, who do you room with on away games etc.

Then the standard fixtures results and squads.

i can only really now see a space for a programme that would literally be a souvenir of the match, as mentioned the actual profit margin is tight any how, and I'm not sure how many we currently sell. I don't see many people with them on match day any more.

Away programmes I have always liked to read what they have to say about us , maybe our programmes still appeal to away followings ?

[Mattyblue]

The LT isn't much different, it is basically now just re-hashes stories from rovers.co.uk

It doesn't even try and inform when it has the chance. For example there was an article about Leutwiler being called up for Canada, stating that he will 'miss the Blackpool game', will he? Surely any journo worth his salt would add a quick caveat stating that said game is now likely to be called off?

Edited September 20, 2017 by Mattyblue

[Dreams of 1995]

13 hours ago, JHRover said:

At the end of the day the current product is abysmal. I believe that is because Rovers have chosen to neglect this particular area of the operation and prefer to churn out a programme as cheaply and quickly as possible with scant regard for the quality of the product.

We can debate all day whether the club should move towards a digital future. I believe in a mid=way point whereby a quality programme is produced and sold in paper form as it always has been but a scanned version is available to download and save to your computer if you prefer. I could scan all the programmes so far into the scanner at work in 30 minutes and email it out as an attachment to a mailing list if people want it that way. Its not difficult if there's the will to do it.

Every week clubs up and down the country prove that it is perfectly viable to produce a comprehensive, quality matchday programme and charge £3 for it and can make it work. The only reason Rovers don't is because they can't be bothered. 

Anyone spot a pattern emerging here? That's right, we've only one director, he's got enough on his plate to worry about a programme that he probably never reads, and so it falls between the cracks whilst the show rolls on with the minimum done to produce one. Same applies to the matchday 'entertainment' with the same old music played over and over again at a volume so low I struggle to hear what it actually is. It hardly lends itself to building up an atmosphere pre kick off. Some poor soul not able to do the job has probably had the programme job thrown upon him a few weeks before the season began because they suddenly realised nobody else was around to do it. 

Shoddy operation. Normally a commercial or communications director would hold such responsibility and employ/delegate the programme job to someone capable with requirements attached as to content and quality. This being the same club that pleads poverty yet treats a potential income stream with such disdain!

This is the biggest factor in it. There isn't anyone that is actually taking the club by the scruff of its neck and trying to turn a corner, regardless of what certain people say. One or two signings followed by the retention of players, which is more or less the minimum a club should do, isn't making amends. When other clubs our size have come down to this level in the past they've seen radical change in the way in which they operate. Not us. We continue to plod along with the same miserable status-quo buoyed by wins against teams we should be beating anyway. The optimism a win brings flatters to deceive in a sense that issues such as this go unrecognised when on a winning streak.

The club simply doesn't care about its fans and doesn't feel the need to engage with them. That much has been evident over the years and this is a symptom of that. Until that changes then you can never really expect any different. Everything from our local paper coverage, club press releases (the blatant carbon copy "Owners Statement" we are given at the end of every disappointed season), behind the scenes interviews, match day programs, ticket communication and match day entertainment stinks. As a fan base we are over the moon that we have a manager that actually tells the truth - how sad is that? We should expect that.

Rovers is in a rot and will always be until very serious change is made. When that happens is anyone's guess.

[Darren Brown]

I may have missed the boat on this one, but I'd agree that the reason the programme is so poor is down to a lack of focus/communication from within the club, and probably the lack of anyone there giving a toss, I would imagine it is a nightmare trying to get info out of them in time for print deadlines. I bought one for the Burnley game, and won't bother buying another this season. And as others have said, I was really impressed with the quality and content of the Rochdale programme.

I worked as the graphic designer on the Rovers programme from '98 (1st: pre-season friendly vs PSV) till 2005 (last: Tony Parkes testimonial) as a fan it was a pleasure to work on, I visited Brockhall, the media centre at the ground 'Drumhawk' it was called, for some strange reason, and once spoke to both Graeme Souness and Brad Friedel when they rang to alter their columns. I always put in the effort to make the programme the best I could in both design and content - sometimes researching info myself to put in, but sadly that seems to be missing now.

It is a pity that some of the Radio Rovers staff could not have been retained in some capacity on this perhaps - or the club try to recruit Rovers supporting / locally based media agency to take this on board?

[Mattyblue]

Noticed that a fella called Ryan Grant is now writing the articles on the official website. Quick look on Twitter says he's our new 'Comms & Media Manager'.

He's come from Man Utd, so let's see if anything improves...

[MCMC1875]

55 minutes ago, Darren Brown said:

I may have missed the boat on this one, but I'd agree that the reason the programme is so poor is down to a lack of focus/communication from within the club, and probably the lack of anyone there giving a toss, I would imagine it is a nightmare trying to get info out of them in time for print deadlines. I bought one for the Burnley game, and won't bother buying another this season. And as others have said, I was really impressed with the quality and content of the Rochdale programme.

I worked as the graphic designer on the Rovers programme from '98 (1st: pre-season friendly vs PSV) till 2005 (last: Tony Parkes testimonial) as a fan it was a pleasure to work on, I visited Brockhall, the media centre at the ground 'Drumhawk' it was called, for some strange reason, and once spoke to both Graeme Souness and Brad Friedel when they rang to alter their columns. I always put in the effort to make the programme the best I could in both design and content - sometimes researching info myself to put in, but sadly that seems to be missing now.

It is a pity that some of the Radio Rovers staff could not have been retained in some capacity on this perhaps - or the club try to recruit Rovers supporting / locally based media agency to take this on board?

Drumhawk Communications was a local media company sponsoring Rovers at that time.

Edited October 12, 2017 by MCMC1875

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

1 hour ago, Darren Brown said:

I may have missed the boat on this one, but I'd agree that the reason the programme is so poor is down to a lack of focus/communication from within the club, and probably the lack of anyone there giving a toss, I would imagine it is a nightmare trying to get info out of them in time for print deadlines. I bought one for the Burnley game, and won't bother buying another this season. And as others have said, I was really impressed with the quality and content of the Rochdale programme.

I worked as the graphic designer on the Rovers programme from '98 (1st: pre-season friendly vs PSV) till 2005 (last: Tony Parkes testimonial) as a fan it was a pleasure to work on, I visited Brockhall, the media centre at the ground 'Drumhawk' it was called, for some strange reason, and once spoke to both Graeme Souness and Brad Friedel when they rang to alter their columns. I always put in the effort to make the programme the best I could in both design and content - sometimes researching info myself to put in, but sadly that seems to be missing now.

It is a pity that some of the Radio Rovers staff could not have been retained in some capacity on this perhaps - or the club try to recruit Rovers supporting / locally based media agency to take this on board?

You did a good job, the programme was excellent then.

Edited October 12, 2017 by Tyrone Shoelaces

[Darren Brown]

Cheers Tyrone (like the user name!) very nice of you to say - much appreciated!

[Mattyblue]

Any chance we could be one of said clubs?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43955431

 

[MarkBRFC]

I can see why we could be one of them, i really hope not though just for the simple reason my lad loves collecting them.

[JHRover]

Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if Rovers are one of those clubs looking to do away with the matchday programme. What was a poor product has gradually got worse and having purchased every programme this season I can confidently say Rovers' is one of the worst going in the league in quality, content and volume.

There's no excuse for it and it is purely about how much effort a club wants to make. 

Rovers will trot out the old excuse that there's no money to be made on programmes which might well be right but that doesn't explain how so many other clubs in the 3rd and 4th divisions manage to produce a vastly superior product and charge the same price for it. Rochdale and Bristol Rovers had excellent programmes full of interesting material.

Next week with a bumper crowd on you might expect Rovers to produce a special promotion programme crammed full of interviews, photos, coverage of the season, make it a promotion celebration souvenir edition, include stuff about the Under 23s magnificent efforts this season, I'm not optimistic about it, I expect another pitiful effort. 

People might call it complaining for the sake of it but I see it as something the club should take pride in and use as a selling point for the club.

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by JHRover

[frosty]

On 8/14/2017 at 10:50, JHRover said:

Picked up the first edition of the new Rovers programme on Saturday. The new cover design features an old map of Blackburn and this week had a picture of Danny Graham and Blackburn Cathedral. It seems each edition will feature a different player and 'landmark' of the area on the cover.

Got me wondering how on earth they are going to manage to find 24-26 landmarks from Blackburn to have on each programme cover this season.

Expect to see Darwen Tower, Town Hall, King George's Hall, Railway Station, after that can't think of many other things they could use.

Just looking back through this thread - did they find enough 'landmarks' in the end to last a season? Must have been struggling once we got past about October...

[Mattyblue]

Sure they had the monstrosity that is ‘The Mall’ one week.

[arbitro]

There is an interesting item on the agenda at today's EFL AGM regarding match programmes.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11398002/efl-agm-to-get-underway-on-friday-with-clubs-expected-to-vote-on-number-of-issues

[perthblue02]

14 minutes ago, arbitro said:

There is an interesting item on the agenda at today's EFL AGM regarding match programmes.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11398002/efl-agm-to-get-underway-on-friday-with-clubs-expected-to-vote-on-number-of-issues

Surely in the advent of all things digital there is absolutely no reason for the EFL and officials from clubs to go swanning off to Portugal each year, everything can be done over a skype conference or similar .Be a lot cheaper considering the EFL are always complaining of being skint

Edited June 8, 2018 by perthblue02

[arbitro]

24 minutes ago, perthblue02 said:

Surely in the advent of all things digital there is absolutely no reason for the EFL and officials from clubs to go swanning off to Portugal each year, everything can be done over a skype conference or similar .Be a lot cheaper considering the EFL are always complaining of being skint

In the next few weeks an army of English blazers will be flying business class to Russia and staying in five star hotels whilst dining out on expenses. Bottom feeders are more prevalent in football than anywhere else.

[Mattyblue]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44396446

Saves the club trying to think of another 23 landmarks in Blackburn and Darwen.

[Stuart]

A dark day. We are heading towards monthly fanzines and, potentially, annual membership with monthly subscription (rather than season tickets).

[Mattyblue]

Hull already do.

https://www.hullcitytigers.com/tickets-landing-page/memberships/memberships-how-to-buy/

 

 

[JHRover]

What are the odds on Rovers deciding not to produce a programme? I reckon they will have one eye on not doing.

Have any clubs announced they won't be bothering following the rule change? I've noticed a few who have said they will continue to print a programme irrespective of the rule.

You can understand it to some extent at the top Premier League clubs with truly global support - simplifies things to churn out a digital product for their worldwide fanbases - and at League Two clubs getting a couple of thousand on it might not be worth the effort given the amount of programmes they sell - but Rovers should buck up their ideas on this and start producing a programme worthy of the £3 price.

[Exiled in Toronto]

Apart from the manager’s column, pen pictures of opponents and key previous meetings, there’s very little in a programme that isn’t easily available online. Maybe EFL should resurrect the old Football League Review idea and include in every clubs’ programme a kind of mini 442. Producing 32 pages of interesting and new content every other week is both expensive and difficult for each club. Maybe each club should just produce the 4 pages of match relevant content coupled with the mini 442 which they each get for 1/72 of the cost of production.

[Stuart]

Programmes have been produced for decades. They haven’t suddenly got more difficult to produce but they standards and content certainly have. As a result, and combined with far lower gates, sales are not what they once were.

With Facebook and Twitter and their own club apps, I can’t see how the paper copy will survive. But that has been said about newspapers for at least 10 years.

Shame really but I stopped buying them ages ago because there was little to nothing in there of interest.

[J*B]

13 hours ago, meadows said:

A premier league press officer today tweeted unequivocally that there is no future in digital editions. 

Sounds like said officer is a dinsaur. If he can't see a future in an interactive, content driven digital programme that's his own issue, thankfully the Premier League have a creative department. 

[Vinjay]

The latest fans forum minutes recorded a discussion related to this. The club seem to subscribe to the view (which I agree with) that people purchase them from a collective standpoint rather than content. Needless to say there's enough information overload online and the club site lacks imagination anyway. I don't want to get started on a long winded debate about the potential pitfalls of publishing in print. At least with the programme people know what they are purchasing. I never used premium rate clubcall (was younger than and besides most people had Ceefax and Teletext) which is absolutely redundant now. Some of the people who produced content for those phone lines used to make up complete rubbish and rip fans off. Very professional. Maybe adults should always know better than to fall for such scams but kids wouldn't have.  

Edited June 12, 2018 by Vinjay17